Achieving 7pc growth this fiscal unlikely : Muhith

FE Report Finance Minister AMA Muhith said Wednesday the country is unlikely to achieve the projected seven per cent growth rate during the current fiscal year (FY) 2011-12 due to high import bills, spiraling inflation, less-than-expected investment and soaring subsidies bill for different public sector bodies. "Our economy is now under pressure. High petroleum price in the international market and increased subsidies to the power, energy and agriculture sectors would make it difficult to achieve the targeted seven per cent growth rate," he said while speaking as the chief guest at the 11th annual conference on 'South Asia: Facing Challenges of Global Markets' at Ruposhi Bangla Hotel in the capital. Bangladesh Institute of Development Studies (BIDS), South Asia Network of Economic Research Institutes (SANEI) and Global Development Network (GDN) jointly organised the conference. TN Srinivasan, Samuel C Park Professor of Economics, Yale University of the USA and also Chairman of SANEI Research Advisory Panel (RAP), chaired the inaugural session of the conference. Dr Mustafa K Mujeri, coordinator of SANEI and director general (DG) of BIDS, delivered the address of welcome. "I'm not sure whether we can achieve seven per cent growth rate this fiscal (2011-12). We have to bring down the rate of inflation to achieve the targeted growth performance of the overall economy," Mr Muhith said. About high commodity prices, the finance minister suggested that the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and the World Bank (WB) should come forward with foreign trade financing facility to help bring about some stability in the global commodity market. He called upon the SANEI to conduct research and find out appropriate ways for availability of more foreign trade financing. "We should think about foreign trade financing. Development of global coordination mechanism needs to be found out in this connection," he said. Mr Muhith called upon the public and private research institutions in the country to collaborate with each other in carrying out studies on population census, urbanisaiton, calculation of food demand and the state of public health. Dr Mujeri said this year Afghanistan, Bhutan and the Maldives will join SANEI. He said the SANEI will expand its research activities and organise different programmes on economic and other pertinent issues in South Asia (SA). Prof TN Srinivasan said the South Asian countries would be affected in short-, mid- and long-terms owing to the Eurozone crisis. Ms Ramona Margareta Naqvi, senior political scientist and director of programme management of GDN, said her organisation would extend more support to SANEI for carrying out research activities in various fields. SANEI is the South Asian (SA) regional partner of the GDN. It is a non-profit, regional initiative established in 1998 to help foster networking among the economic research institutions in South Asia for establishing strong research interlinkages to broader areas of concerns having relevance to regional cooperation, understanding and development. SANEI has a membership of 57 research institutes in the South Asia region. There are 13 research institutes in Bangladesh, 26 in India, three in Nepal, 10 in Pakistan and five in Sri Lanka. The SANEI secretariat is located at BIDS. In March, 2011 South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation (SAARC) recognised it as a body in areas of activities coming within the ambit of its research-related activities.